Exercise equipment has been designed to facilitate a variety of exercise motions. For example, treadmills allow a person to walk or run in place; stepper machines allow a person to climb in place; bicycle machines allow a person to pedal in place; and other machines allow a person to skate and/or stride in place. Many of these prior art machines include a flywheel to provide a relatively smooth exercise motion.
Yet another type of exercise equipment has been designed to facilitate relatively more complicated exercise motions and/or to better simulate actual striding motion. Such equipment typically links a relatively simple motion (i.e. circular) to a relatively more complex motion (i.e. elliptical). Examples of such equipment are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,185,622 to Swenson; 5,242,343 to Miller; and 5,529,555 to Rodgers, Jr. These devices similarly include a flywheel in order to enhance their performance.
A disadvantage of many exercise machines, including those disclosed in the above-identified references, is that they are relatively bulky. Some efforts have been undertaken to address this shortcoming in the art, as evidenced by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,352,169 to Eschenbach; 5,423,729 to Eschenbach; and 5,529,554 to Eschenbach, for example. Although relatively more collapsible, the machines disclosed in these patents have no flywheel and thus, have sacrificed performance for more convenient storage. In other words, a need remains for an exercise apparatus which includes a flywheel for high performance exercise yet nonetheless may be collapsed into a relatively compact storage configuration.